OFF95: OSB Fails to Start Under Microsoft Windows NT 4.0

• Microsoft Office for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a, 7.0b

SYMPTOMS

When you start or customize the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar on a computer running Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0, and your video driver is configured to use more than 256 colors, you may receive the following error message

   An application error has occurred and an application error log is
   being generated.

   MSOFFICE.exe
   Exception: access violation (0xc0000005), Address: 0x77f9426b

CAUSE

This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:

• You are running Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0

  -and-

• You are using a video driver setting of more than 256 colors.

  -and-

• You customize the Office Shortcut Bar.

  -and-

• You close, and then attempt to start the Office Shortcut Bar.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, delete the toolbar files in the Office\Shortcut Bar folder, change the video color setting to 16 or 256 colors, and then customize the Office Shortcut Bar toolbar. After you finish customizing the Office Shortcut Bar, change the video driver color setting to the original setting. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start on the taskbar, point to Programs, and then click Windows NT Explorer.

2. On the View menu, click Options, click the View tab, and then click Show All Files. Click OK.

3. Open the <Msoffice>\Office\Shortcut Bar folder, where <Msoffice> is the folder in which you installed Microsoft Office.

4. Delete all the files with a .tbb file name extension in the folder.

5. Click Start on the taskbar, point to Settings and click Control Panel.

6. Double-click Display and click the Settings tab.

7. On the Color Palette list, click 256 Colors and click Apply. If you are prompted to keep the selection, click OK and click OK again.

8. Click Start on the taskbar, point to Programs, point to Startup and click Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar.

   This starts the Office Shortcut Bar.

9. Make all the desired customizations to the Office Shortcut Bar.

10. Close the Office Shortcut Bar.

11. To change the number of colors back to the original setting, repeat

        steps 5 through 7 but change the number of colors in step 7.
    

12. Repeat step 8 to start Office Shortcut Bar.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Office for Windows 95, version 7.0. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Office 97 for Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

Once the Office Shortcut Bar fails every time you try to start it, the toolbar cache files (.tbb) become corrupted. To rebuild these toolbar files, you must delete the toolbar cache files and redefine the custom toolbar setting.

To customize the Office Shortcut Bar in the future when you are using more than 256 colors under Microsoft Windows NT, follow the steps starting with step 5 in the "Workaround" section in this article.

For additional information about the toolbar files, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q142523
   TITLE     : OFF: Adding Toolbar to OSB Creates .tbb or .tmp Files